The government should speed up the process of wheat import as the available wheat are not enough to meet the requirement until the arrival of next crop. The hoarders' role would again come into play if wheat import was held hostage to the manoeuvring of the vested interests both in public and private sectors, sources said on Tuesday.
The available wheat stocks are estimated at 2.36 million tons with Punjab, 1.2 million tons with Passco, 0.54 million tons with Sindh, 40,000 tons with NWFP, and 27,145 tons with Balochistan. A senior official of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) said that if wheat import was delayed, the local market would have to face price hike of flour and wheat again.
He said that the stocks available with the provincial governments cannot meet the overall requirements of wheat till April as the next crop would arrive in the market by the end of April. "The provincial governments have the wheat stocks till of January. It is true that the government wants to keep the imported wheat as 'strategic reserves' but when the provinces would fall short of wheat, maybe by the first week of February, then the strategic reserve would be brought in the domestic market", he said.
The official said that the hoarders were bringing their stocks into the market after the government's decision to import wheat, but if the import was delayed then the hoarders would again come into play after January, creating artificial shortage of wheat and flour in the domestic market. "It is really pathetic that the country, even getting wheat production in surplus in 2007, has to import the commodity just because of hoarding and smuggling."